LONG BEACH, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 29, 2012 —
Apriso, the leading provider of manufacturing software solutions, today
announced general availability of FlexNet 9.6, the company’s next
generation manufacturing software platform that offers much more than
traditional
Manufacturing
Execution Systems. New capabilities offer greater benefits to more
widely adopt paperless manufacturing processes. The greater process
efficiency and standardization that is now possible also meets business
needs for faster, more effective New Product Introduction (NPI) while
increasing responsiveness to market change.

To succeed in manufacturing, companies need the aptitude to innovate and
the capability to flawlessly execute. Effective execution of these
qualities results in the delivery of the right new product to the right
market, faster than the competition. Manufacturers operating on a global
scale are further challenged to innovate and collaborate across multiple
geographies while ensuring consistent production and product quality,
regardless of point of manufacture, all while maintaining brand
integrity and achieving regulatory compliance at the lowest total cost.

Realizing a Paperless Manufacturing Environment

Apriso’s FlexNet 9.6 more readily supports conversion to paperless
manufacturing environments. Enhanced role-based electronic work
instructions (eWI) can more easily be updated by business users, without
the need for IT involvement. This eWI improvement is especially useful
for manufacturers in highly regulated industries including aerospace and
defense, medical device and automotive, as it allows for greater process
reusability and standardization across sites, simplifying continuous
improvement without impacting current orders.

“Paper-based processes cannot keep pace with the rate of change and
fluid nature of today’s manufacturers that work across sites with a
global supply chain. What typically results are wasted resources, costs,
time and effort, severely limiting global process and quality
standardization,” explained John Fishell, vice president of product
management at Apriso. “When FlexNet 9.6 is implemented as a platform
for paperless manufacturing, considerable process flexibility and
efficiency can be unlocked, resulting in improved product quality,
on-time performance and operational agility.”

Accelerating New Product Introduction (NPI)

Apriso’s
Manufacturing
Intelligence solution, or MPI 2.0 (
see
prior announcement), provides real-time visibility and improved
decision support to better enable flawless operations execution.
Apriso’s MPI 2.0, combined with the upgraded FlexNet 9.6, provides
manufacturers with a better feedback loop that can increase
collaboration between engineering and manufacturing to build new
products right the first time – at highest possible quality for the
lowest cost. FlexNet 9.6 improves the efficiency of releasing new
products to manufacturing by improving change management process
efficiency to reduce latency between engineering and manufacturing,
critical when launching new products. Better linking the definition of
manufacturing processes from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to
manufacturing ensures process adherence to reduce time to market.

Support for Windows 8

Apriso's FlexNet offers a unified suite of manufacturing software
applications that lets organizations better synchronize their global
operations – within the plant, between plants, and across their product
supply network. As a Windows 8 application, FlexNet 9.6 will continue to
support Apriso’s strategy of offering seamless integration to Microsoft
applications and Windows users by providing an infrastructure for its
customers’ mobile, desktop and shop floor devices. Apriso’s FlexNet 9.6
also offers
mobile
access for Apple and Android users.